Speakers 2017

Alenka Pirman (Ljudmila, SI)

Alenka is an artist and the Co-Editor-In-Chief of the two biggest portals for culture in Slovenia – Kulturnik.si and Culture.si, published by the Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory since 2010. At Ljudmila, she has also been involved in the establishment of Creative Commons Slovenia and the organization of the Festival of Creativity and Free Culture (2005-2007). In her visual arts practice, she has unsuccessfully applied various tactics since 1990 – from multiple authorship to appropriation and travesty – in order to outplay the omnivorous art system.

Alexander Čerevka (Slnko Records, LALA Slovak Music Export, SK)

Alexander is a freelance PR agent, artist manager and occasional concert promoter in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. His main job is as the PR representative for the leading Slovak record label Slnko Records, which publishes the finest local indie/art/pop/folk artists. He is also the co-founder of LALA Slovak Music Export, a non-profit organisation aiming to establish long-term support and presentation of the Slovak music scene abroad. His keywords are cooperation and education.

Anastasia Connor (freelance journalist, Song, By Toad, UK)

Anastasia is a freelance journalist and Song, By Toad press officer. She regularly contributes to major UK music magazines and websites, including DIY, Drowned In Sound, The 405, Gigwise and The Skinny. She has a particular interest in festivals and has covered events from Montreal to Manchester, from London to Lisbon. Her previous professional incarnations include PR agency work, arts marketing and fundraising. Having recently joined independent Scottish label Song, By Toad, she works on press campaigns with established names, such as Meursault, and more recent additions to the roster, such as Modern Studies and Lush Purr.

Anders Carlsson (Goto80, SE)

Goto80 is a Swedish Old Media artist and researcher who works with music and text, and has been called “the most prolific chip music artist” (Computer Music Magazine). Since his first steps in the demoscene in 1992, he has developed his own mix of pop, beats and craft. He performs 8-bit music around the world, runs the blog/label Chipflip, and has been featured at art festivals such as Transmediale, MOMI New York, Blip Tokyo Hultsfred Festival and Ars Electronica.

Ania Kasperek (Chimes Agency, PL)

Ania is a music manager, passionate about Nordic culture and inspired by Scandinavian entrepreneurship. At Chimes, she is responsible for the company’s strategy, as well as its management and implementation of daily business. She manages Polish singer-songwriter Daniel Spaleniak, and is the initiator and Director of New Neighborhoods Festival.

Arne Thamer (Popup Records, DE)

Arne joined popup-records in 2006. He founded the company’s booking department and is also in charge of PR campaigns in all media areas, festival booking, showcase PR and consulting, planning and the daily business of a music label. popup-records works with partners such as Caroline/Universal, Don`t Panic! We´re From Poland, Live Music Hungary, Schoneberg, Red Essential, Redeye, Believe Digital, Virgin, One Little Indian, Because Music, Karsten Jahnke, Carnival Youth and many more.

Attilio Perissinotti (BPM Concerti, Home Festival, IT)

An Italian promoter since 1991, Attilio has promoted bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Motörhead, Bruce Dickinson, H-Blockx, Clawfinger, These Animal Men, Cranes and many more through his company Virus Concerti. He is the co-founder of Beach Bum Rock Festival in Jesolo (Venice), which took place from 1995 to 2000. In 2013, he co-founded BPM Concerti – an Italian booking and promotion company, skilled at exporting artists abroad. In 2008, he founded Tij Events Ltd, a London-based agency for exporting Italian music and culture to the rest of Europe. He has also helped the founder of Home Festival with artist bookings since the first edition of the festival.

Darko Kujundžić (Vizualab, HR)
Darko is a Zagreb-based graphic designer with more than 15 years of experience in the music and film industries. He’s the founder of the Vizualab graphic design studio and collaborates with regional music festivals (INmusic, SuperUho, Zdravo mladi …), concert venues (Kino Šiška, Močvara, MKC Skopje …), record labels (Moonlee Records, Dancing Bear, Croatia Records, Interstellar Records …) and more. He’s passionate about designing and silk-screening gig posters, as well as artwork restoration for vinyl reissue purposes. Oh, and he’s owned by a cat.

Daryl Bamonte (BAM, Schubert Music Publishing, UK)

Daryl – with over 35 years of experience in the music industry – started working with his childhood friends, Depeche Mode, in 1980 and spent more than 15 years with them in various roles, including tour manager, project manager (albums) and eventually even as keyboard player, replacing Andy Fletcher on the “Devotional” tour in 1994. During those years, he also toured with The Cure, then in 1995 began working with them full time, again in various roles – including as the executive producer of the “The Cure” album and the “Trilogy” DVD. In 2005, he set up Bamonte Artist Management and represented various musicians/writers/producers, as well as acted as label manager for a number of their releases. Today, he is the Managing Director for Schubert Music Publishing UK and Smile Records UK, as well as still managing artists.

Derek Robertson (Drowned In Sound, UK)

Derek is a freelance music writer and digital journalist with over eight years of experience, contributing to a variety of publications, both in print and online. Having written for the likes of The Quietus, Dummy, Loud & Quiet, The 405, and Le Cool, as well as a three-year stint as the English Editor of PERDIZ magazine, he is now Senior Associate Editor at Drowned In Sound, where he oversees editorial direction and is involved in digital strategy. Currently based in Amsterdam, he also contributes to Subbacultcha, an independent music and art platform devoted to emerging artists, and provides content for several internationally renowned Dutch festivals.

Edgars Abolins (Fontaine Palace, LV)

Currently managing one of the biggest rock music venues in Latvia – Fontaine Palace in Liepaja – Edgar has previously worked as a booking manager for Fontaine Palace and up until 2016 also Nabaklab in Riga – another busy live music venue in the capital city. Since 2010, he has been serving as one of the founders and bookers of the third biggest Latvian international music festival Laba Daba. He still occasionally puts on shows in Riga for many well-known alternative music acts. He also owned a small booking agency called Rockhouse (later Meteor Agency), which organised tours in the Baltics, Russia and Ukraine from 2003 to 2008.

Franz Hergovich (Austrian Music Export, AT)

Franz started working as a Project Manager at mica – music austria in 2008. He co-founded Austrian Music Export as a joint initiative of mica – music austria and the Austrian Music Fund. As of 2011, he is the Deputy Managing Director at mica. He was Head of National Distribution at Soul Seduction for a decade and worked as a concert promoter and DJ. He was the Secretary of EMO (European Music Office) from 2010 to 2013, a member of the IAMIC Board (International Association of Music Information Centres) in 2012/13, and the Managing Director of the MICA – Music Promotion Agency GmbH from 2011 to 2015.

Gergely Salamon (Eastaste, HU)

Gergely is one of the founders of Eastaste Music Licencing, specialized for brands and promotion. After working with different brands for an event agency, he was in charge of international communications in the management of Sziget Festival between 2005 and 2011. During that time, he was also involved in a number of fashion and music projects on the Hungarian market. Since then, he is active as a business consultant and as a creative director of various music and popular culture related campaigns for brands such as Coca-Cola, Burn Energy and Orange. Still, his priority is to take care of the creative flow at Eastaste and the newly founded Budapest Showcase Hub.

Idon Mine (AT)
Idon Mine is not a poster or music artist by nature, rather someone who is fed up with the attitudes and small change production surrounding a certain spectrum of visual art. Drawing in this case is more than an illustrative element, but a method of rudimentary designing that works without the cut up stylings of digital programs. Idon Mine is coasting by on a broader setting of narrowness, mostly avoiding the space of the record cover or gig poster, but looking for other pigeonholed disciplines that fall to the wayside of said formats. All by the credo: “The more and the quicker, the better.”

Ivan Milivojev (Exit Festival, RS)

Ivan is one of the founders of several festivals in Serbia and the surrounding region – Exit (RS), Warrior’s Dance (RS), Sea Dance (MN), rEVOLUTION (RO) and the amazing art festival #Dev9t (RS) –, working with them as Program Manager and Board Member. In addition to dealing with artist bookings, he is thus involved in all the stages of development, production, health and safety at the above-mentioned events. His 15 years of festival experience, along with promoting artists such as Die Antwoord, Robbie Williams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, Madonna, The Chemical Brothers, Manu Chao, Gentleman, The Prodigy and many more, are solid proof of his professionalism and quality. As of 2011, he is also a Board Member at YOUROPE.

Jacek Skolimowski (Newsweek Poland, Polnisches Institut Berlin, PL)

Jacek has been working as a music journalist since the end of the 1990s, writing mostly about the Polish music scene for various independent and mainstream media. He also had his own show on public radio for many years, focusing on experimental and world music, and occasionally performed DJ sets in clubs. He was a member of the core team of the Polish-German project Radio Copernicus and curated different projects with contemporary music. Currently he lives in Berlin and works as a music specialist for the Polish Institute, as well as writing for Newsweek Poland.

Jean-Louis Brossard (Les Rencontres Trans Musicales, FR)

Jean-Louis is the co-founder, booker and artistic director of the Les Rencontres Trans Musicales festival, which has been running since 1979. He travels the world to find new artists and feature them on the Trans Musicales festival stages each year in December. He’s world-renowned as a talent scout, and booked artists such as Nirvana, Lenny Kravitz, Daft Punk, Björk, Stromae and many other great ones for their first French show when they were still totally unknown.

John Richards (Dirty Electronics, UK)

John Richards explores the idea of Dirty Electronics that focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. He is primarily concerned with the performance of large-group electronic music and DIY electronics, and the idea of creating music inside electronics. His work also pushes the boundaries between performance art, electronics, and graphic design, and is transdisciplinary, as well as having a socio-political dimension. Dirty Electronics has been commissioned to create sound devices for various arts organisations and festivals and has released a series of hand-held synths on Mute Records.

Jonathan Poneman (Sub Pop Records, US)

Relocating from Ohio to the Pacific Northwest, Jonathan first entered the Seattle music scene volunteering at University of Washington’s student radio station KCMU in 1983. In 1988, he founded Sub Pop Records together with Bruce Pavitt. They rented an office, went massively into debt and expected it all to last about a month. 25 years later, Sub Pop lives! Having been responsible for launching the recording careers of Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Postal Service, Fleet Foxes and The Head and The Heart, the label is effectively synonymous with Seattle and its world-renowned music scene.

Karlo Medjugorac (Sito, SI)
Karlo is a visual communications designer, who began his career at the Gigodesign company. His studies then took him to Finland, and afterwards to the No Picnic design studio in Stockholm. While he was working abroad, he got his MA in Visual Communications from the Academy of Fine Art and Design in Ljubljana in 2010, then returned to Slovenia with his family. He continues to work with various clients, with the most prominent music-related ones being Spotify, the Druga Godba festival and the Skopje Jazz Festival.

Katia Giampaolo (JoyCut, Estragon, IT)

Katia proudly manages ETEP 2015 Top 5 band JoyCut, which has toured extensively across the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. As Co-Director at Estragon, she is part of the team running Bologna’s famous 2,000 capacity Estragon Club and the open-air Botanique festival with a capacity of 3,000. She is also the President of MMF Italy and a Member of the International Music Managers Forum’s Live Committee.

Kevin Cole (KEXP, US)

Performing for over 15 years as resident DJ at Minneapolis’ legendary First Avenue, Kevin pioneered the eclectic sound for which that city became famous. In 1991, he started the wildly adventurous Revolution Radio (REV105), which won numerous national awards and was considered to be the last great commercial alternative radio station in America. In addition, he produced and hosted syndicated radio shows that aired all over the world, including the Spin Radio Network. In 1998, he moved to Seattle to help a relatively new company, Amazon.com, launch their music site. In 2002, he turned his attention to KEXP, becoming the Senior Director of Programming and host of the Afternoon Show, and has since been leading this globally revered non-profit arts organization dedicated to enriching lives by championing music and discovery.

Luka Prinčič (Kamizdat, SI)

Luka is a musician, sound designer and media artist. He has been writing music, creating sound art, performing, and manipulating new media in various ways since the mid-1990s. He specialises in computer music, elaborate funk beats, immersive soundscapes, incidental music for live arts & video, and digital media experiments. He currently works at the Emanat Institute and runs Kamizdat, a label for adventurous music, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Magda Chołyst (Chimes Agency, PL)

A certified art coach, she studied at Poznań’s A. Mickiewicz University and Paris’ Sorbonne, as well as coaching at Erickson College. She is dedicated to supporting artists and creative managers to best take advantage of their own potential. As an art coach, she works with individual artists, runs workshops dedicated to various aspects of the creative process, as well as lectures in art schools. Amongst others, she has collaborated with the Polish Institute in Paris, the Wajda School & Studio, the NieWidzialny Dizajn conference, and ScriptFiesta Festival. She is also a lecturer at Collegium Civitas and the Warsaw School of Photography.

Magdalena Jensen (Chimes Agency, PL)

Magdalena is the founder of Chimes, an independent music agency, who worked as a journalist for Polish radio for several years before stepping into the music industry as the band manager for Paula & Karol. She has worked and consulted with BRODKA, Rebeka, Kamp! and more. Currently she’s managing Ifi Ude. She organized the European Music Fair for five years and has produced numerous conferences and events in Poland. She served on the Advisory Board for the 2014 Bitspiration Festival, providing support on the music industry. She is Polish American and has lived in Warsaw for more than ten years.

Malcolm Haynes (Glastonbury Festival, UK)

Malcolm has been promoting concerts since his teens and has spent most of his life promoting some of the best acts in the world in his hometown of Bristol and at various UK festivals. He has worked at Glastonbury Festival since 1990, when he started booking for the Jazz World stage. In 2005, he created and programmed the Dance Village at Glastonbury, which has seven venues, covering live bands as well as DJs – very much a festival within a festival (renamed Silver Hayes in 2013). He has a regular monthly DJ slot (DJ Baby Malc Selector) at the Big Chill Bar in Bristol and deejays at various private parties.

Mario Grdošić (Los Angeles Agency, HR)

Mario promotes international and regional shows in Croatia, as well as handles management and booking for several regional artists. Some of the artists LAA promoted over the last couple of years include Iron Maiden, Die Antwoord, Chris Cornell, The xx, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Bords, Manu Chao La Ventura, Slash, Clutch, Mastodon, Slayer and many others.

Markus Linde (Thag’s Agent, DE)

Markus has been successfully running his Thag’s Agent imprint for 13 years now, making him a veteran of independent German sync agencies. With a long professional history in the record business (marketing and A&R for CBS, BMG, Sony Music), publishing (Managing Director at Freibank Music Publishing) and artist management, he draws from experience and knowledge, as well as from a love of music. He has a long and excellent track record for music placements in national and international advertising campaigns and a few films. He also does music rights research and clearances. He finds his contributions for pitches, briefings and slots in a wide range of catalogues, from the majors to the smallest independents.

Martina Anđelković (Snajka de Madre, RS)

Martina aka Snajka de Madre is a digital entrepreneur, digital marketing manager and journalist. She’s having fun working with classy clients such as EXIT Festival, Sea Dance Festival, Revolution Festival Temisoara, Sea Star Festival, the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC), Infostud and Tennis Academy Bozovic. In addition, she is a respectable educator in the field of Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn advertising.

Maša Pavoković (MashupMash, SI)

Maša has been working in the creative and music industry for the last eight years. She started as a TV presenter on MTV, then continued as an online editor at MTV and a radio presenter. Since then, her work has taken her into the PR and editorial fields. She worked as an editor and researcher for several primetime shows on national television, and was the PR manager for state-of-the-art productions with some of the world’s best DJs. As of 2013, she coordinates Špil liga, the first high school band league, at Kino Šiška. She recently became involved in artist management, concert promotion and helping young musicians develop their careers. Koala Voice and Jakob Kobal are the first artists on her roster.

Mate Škugor (Žedno Uho, HR)

Born in Šibenik, where his musical journey began, he came back 39 years later to launch the Terraneo Festival, then returned again in 2014 with the new SuperUho Festival. While studying, he started promoting music at KSET Club, where many great bands performed from 1997 until 2006, when he became the Director of the Music Programme at Student Centre Zagreb and received the opportunity to promote music at five different venues. Since 2010, he is fully independent. Besides Žedno Uho Festival, which he has been organizing in Zagreb since 2000, and SuperUho Festival, he is also the Croatian promoter for Electronic Beats Festival.

Michal Parizek (Full Moon Magazine, Scrape Sound, CZ)

Michal is a music and arts journalist. In 2010, he co-founded Full Moon Magazine and has been its Editor-In-Chief since 2014. Full Moon is both a printed monthly magazine and a vast online platform based in Prague, covering mostly (but not only) independent artists pushing the boundaries of music in one way or another. The magazine uses dynamic social networks and is engaged in a lot of activities (label, live shows, radio/TV sessions, deejaying, etc.), also working with a number of important festivals all over Europe. As of 2001, Michal is also an event promoter at Scrape Sound Inc.

Monika Satková (Pohoda Festival, SK)

Monika works as a booking assistant at Pohoda Festival, which takes place on the second weekend in July, in Trencin, Slovakia. Pohoda is the biggest festival in Slovakia, with 30,000 daily visitors and more than 160 artists from all over the world. In 2016, Pohoda celebrated its 20th edition. In addition to her duties with the festival, Monika is one of the co-founders of the LALA Slovak Music Export initiative, as well as the singer and composer of the band Snowdrop.

Natasha Padabed (More Zvukov Agency, NL)

Natasha is an agent, festival programmer and music events curator, currently living in Berlin. She works as a program director of the oldest Russian contemporary music festival Sergey Kuryokhin International (SKIF), the experimental electronic festival Electro-Mechanica and the world music festival Ethomechanica in St. Petersburg. Shortly after moving to the Netherlands in 2000, she established the More Zvukov Agency, booking mostly Russian artists around Europe and overseas. She also works as a curator of Russian music programs abroad (Russian Days in HKW Berlin, Avant Festival in Wroclaw). In 2014, she was one of the seven “samurai” of the WOMEX jury committee.

Nebojša Petrović (Rock Svirke Agency, RS)

Nebojša is a music manager, booking agent and the founder and editor of Serbian music portal RockSvirke.com. He previously worked as a professional basketball player and trainer in the younger divisions of the Serbian national team. In 2009, he began working as a promoter of regional and global urban music culture through RockSvirke.com. In time, the platform developed into a regional music publisher bearing the same name. Since 2013, he has successfully worked as a booking agent for a number of internationally recognized artists (Triggerfinger, Battleme, Lisa Hannigan, My Baby, Repetitor …).

Nick Hobbs (Charmenko, TR)

Nick is the owner of Charmenko, Charmworks and Charm Music Poland, as well as the co-owner of Charm Music Czechia. He’s a promoter and a festival and venue talent buyer, specialized in Eastern Europe and the Middle East since the early 1980s. The Charmworks artist agency has an eclectic roster and works everywhere in Europe and beyond, particularly representing exceptional artists from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East.

Pasquale Pezzillo (JoyCut, IT)

After almost non-stop touring around the world for the previous three years and proudly finishing in the Top 5 of ETEP 2015, all without any kind of support from any major corporation, Pasquale’s band JoyCut recently became a historic example, a sort of music ecosystem anomaly in the independent scene. That’s why Pasquale has already been invited to tell his story at TEDx in Verona, at What’s Next in Music in Vilnius, at the University of Delaware in Newark, at Eurosonic in Groningen, at La Coopé in Clermont-Ferrand and now at MENT! He’s also a fan of Michel de Montaigne, Frank Underwood and José Mourinho.

Paweł Trzciński (Distorted Animals, OFF Festival, PL)

Paweł is the founder of Distorted Animals Booking & Promotion, a management and booking agency for Polish artists, and a promoter for club shows around Poland. The agency curates and promotes Distorted Club – one of the longest live music cycles in Warsaw. Paweł is also the founder of Distorted Festival, a multi-venue event in Warsaw, as well as a member of the Programme Board and a booker at OFF Festival Katowice, and Head of Booking at Domoffon Festival in Lodz. Currently he’s focused on establishing a 360º platform for artists and management that would include touring support, PR and advertising, radio and other media, local record distribution, and licensing.

Ramūnas Zilnys (journalist, Lietuvos rytas, LT)

Ramūnas is a music journalist, covering concerts, music releases and other events for Lithuania’s biggest daily newspaper Lietuvos rytas since 1999. He’s the host of a weekly topical show on LRT Opus (Lithuania’s equivalent of BBC Radio 6 Music) and the winner of the Hardest Working Music Journalist award in Lithuania in 2002. He regularly appears on TV and radio as a pundit for music-related matters. He’s also a host at the Vilnius Music Week/What’s Next In Music music industry conferences and a member of the Lithuanian Eurovision Song Contest selection committee since 2013. And a bit of trivia: he owns a football signed by Rod Stewart and doesn’t let anyone touch it.

Renato Horvath (Eastaste, Budapest Showcase Hub – BuSH, HU)

Renato is the co-founder and Managing Director of Eastaste.net, an Eastern European sync and music marketing agency, and the co-founder of the Budapest Showcase Hub – BUSH, the all-Eastern-European showcase festival. He has worked in the entertainment, film and advertising industries for more than a decade as a film/video producer, music manager and cultural entrepreneur.

Richard J. Foster (The Quietus, WORM, NL)

Richard is a music journalist, label owner and artist. Between 2005 and 2015, he was Editor-In-Chief of Incendiary magazine. He writes regularly for The Quietus, Louder than War, Vice (Noisey), True Faith, Luifabriek and Sounds XP. In addition to his journalist work, he works at WORM Rotterdam, is the co-founder of the Dutch “existentialist nonsense” label Smikkelbaard, and runs the AA club nights in Leiden. He’s currently researching the Dutch post-punk and punk movements, and his research will be published during the course of 2017.

Sigtryggur Baldursson (Iceland Music Export, IS)

Sigtryggur is the Managing Director for the Iceland Music Export office, IMX. IMX owns IA, which manages the Iceland Airwaves festival, which is Iceland’s biggest showcase for music. Sigtryggur is also a veteran musician. Outside of Iceland he’s best known for his work with Björk’s first band, the Sugarcubes, from 1986 to 1992, and is one of the owners of their music label, Bad Taste (Smekkleysa). He has also worked extensively with Emiliana Torrini and other Icelandic artists. His current projects include the experimental percussion ensemble Parabolur, which utilizes telecommunications satellite covers and video.

Simon Pursehouse (Sentric Music, UK)

Simon holds the position of Director of Music Services at Sentric Music, where he drives the synchronisation side of the business. He successfully developed relationships that resulted in Sentric’s catalogue being placed in adverts, movies, games, promos and TV shows worldwide. For three years running, the sync department at Sentric has been nominated for Best Independent Publisher at the Music Week Sync Awards. In 2015, Simon was featured in Music Week’s “30 under 30” list of prominent under 30s in the music industry.

Slobodan Milunović (Metal Days, SI)

Boban is probably best known as the owner and promoter of the biggest Slovenian festival MetalDays, where he is in charge of the entire management and booking; but actually he is “the boss” of other 4 festivals too: Punk Rock Holiday, Winter Days of Metal, MotörCity and Overjam Reggae Festival. He has been involved in the music industry his entire life, from playing in various bands and being a tour manager, to establishing a recording and mastering studio, where he took care of mastering and production. His latest project is also a blues rock band called Stray Train.

Tim Boddy (The 405, UK)

Tim has been involved as a Senior Editor for The 405 since its early inception. The site has grown from a tiny blog on Myspace to the sprawling, established publication that it is today – with coverage including music, art, film, style, and tech. It is UK-based, but has contributors from across the globe, and has always had a strong North American connection and audience. Tim primarily takes care of photo features, but also has a hand in all manner of editorial duties, particularly in years gone by. Outside of work for The 405, Tim is a freelance photographer and videographer, and regularly works in the music industry via editorial jobs, as well as on behalf of labels/management.

Tomasz Waśko (Go Ahead, Spring Break, PL)

Tomasz is a marketing manager at Go Ahead and a law graduate. Go Ahead is one of the biggest concert agencies in Poland, having promoted acts such as Rodriguez, Lana Del Rey, Hurts, Within Temptation, Florence and the Machine and many others. Since 2014, Go Ahead is also responsible for running the first Polish showcase festival, Spring Break.

Tony Duckworth ([PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe, PL)

Tony has over 30 years of experience in the music industry across a number of roles, having worked in the UK in sales, marketing and general manager roles for distribution companies, a major label and a digital aggregator. Making the move to Poland twelve years ago, he set up his own sales, marketing, PR and distribution company, which eventually merged with the largest independent distributor in Poland. Now he’s the General Manager of the Warsaw-based [PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe office, overseeing operations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania.

Urša Chitrakar (attorney, SI)

Urša is an attorney specializing in copyright, intellectual property and related entertainment business issues. Among her clients are musicians, writers, directors, photographers and professional artists’ organizations, as well as music and book publishers, record labels, film producers and advertising agencies. Besides regular attorney work and legal counselling, she lectures on copyright and intellectual property. She is frequently involved in research studies related to the above-mentioned issues.

Vaclav Havelka (Bumbum Satori, Please The Trees, CZ)

Vaclav is the singer and songwriter of one of the most successful Czech bands, Please The Trees – their fifth record is scheduled for autumn 2017. He also composes music for theatre productions, screen music for motion pictures, hosts his own show on alternative radio station Wave, and works in festival production (Colours of Ostrava). As part of Scrape Sound Inc., he brings leading international alternative artists (Mark Lanegan, The Afghan Whigs, Swans, Mudhoney) to the Czech Republic. He’s also a booking agent for the Bumbum Satori agency, and a tour manager (Akron/Family, The Butthole Surfers, Sleeping People) for the Nomads of Prague agency.

Vedran Meniga (Pozitivan ritam, HR)

Vedran is the Managing and Creative Director of the Pozitivan ritam agency, launched by enthusiasts active in building and promoting the independent music scene and with more than 25 years of experience. He’s an annual resident of the Fort Punta Christo summer club and festival venue near Pula, where he launched the Seasplash and Slurp! festivals. The location became popular worldwide after organising the Outlook and Dimensions festivals in partnership with English promoters. Besides specialising in event management and production, Pozitivan ritam now holds different brands: the Seasplash platform, PDV Records x Merchandise, the Sirup venue, the EduSplash educational platform and various in-house services – PR/promotion, transport, booking. The newest is Pločnik, a conceptual living room in three levels in Zagreb, filled with events and day-to-day activities and combined with a bar, a small concert venue and a record store.

Vic Galloway (Clash Magazine, BBC Radio Scotland, UK)

Vic is a broadcaster, journalist, musician and author based in Scotland. With 18 years of experience, he has presented weekly music programmes for the BBC, including over 11 years broadcasting for Radio 1. He continues to broadcast and champion new music on BBC Radio Scotland every week, and regularly on BBC Radio 6 Music. He has written for CLASH, The Skinny, The List, The Times and Sunday Herald. He’s also a musician, DJ, curator and host, and has presented various different music TV shows. His first book Songs in the Key of Fife (about The Beta Band, King Creosote, KT Tunstall, James Yorkston and the Fence Collective) was published recently.

Zala Vidali (MENT Ljubljana, SI)

Zala, the Head of Public Relations at MENT Ljubljana, is also the Programme Manager at Layer House, a cultural centre in Kranj, and of the Dvocikel concert cycle and musical residencies. In the past, she has collaborated with numerous music labels and festivals, and worked as an announcer and reporter at Radio Študent and radio Val 202.
Zoran Pungerčar (Look Back and Laugh, SI)

Zoran is active in the fields of graphic design, illustration, prints, drawings and painting. As an illustrator and designer, he has worked for The New York Times, LUD Literatura, Buba Booking, SNG Nova Gorica, Kino Šiška, Delo, Mladina, Nikki Louder etc. He bases his visual language in simplicity and directness. Utilising a combination of materials, he builds the surfaces of stylised, almost ornamental abstract objects or shapes, developing the expressiveness of flatness with a characteristic gesture. As of 2011, he leads the micropublishing project Look Back and Laugh, through which he publishes his own and other artists’ fanzines and artist’s books. As of 2015, he is a member of the Riso Paradiso printing collective, which explores printing with a Risograph and with which he self-released a self-titled project in 2015.